PORTLAND, Ore. – An auctioneer whose throat was cut in a bizarre attack at a Woodburn auction yard told KATU on Wednesday he thought at one point he was going to die.

Chuck Boyce, 50, was overseeing an auction at 597 South Pacific Highway about noon Tuesday in front of a crowd of about 85 people when he was attacked. According to court documents, a man started arguing with Boyce about the speed of the auction, thinking it was going too slow. When Boyce said something to the crowd of bidders about the complaints, the suspect scaled the podium and pulled out a knife.

“He came up behind me and put his arm around my head like this and pulled me back like that and cut my throat, and then I dropped," Boyce told KATU. He suffered a 6-inch-long cut along his neck, police said.

Boyce said he didn’t pass out but instead immediately started thinking about his wife, Terri, and how she might handle things at home with their three children if he didn’t survive.

“Well, at one point in time I said, ‘I think this is it,’ “ he said, choking up.

According to court documents, police believe he only survived because witnesses immediately held a towel to his neck to slow the bleeding before he was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland. He was treated and released on Wednesday.

Police were able to eventually track down the suspect, who ran from the auction yard following the attack. Jeremiah D. Thomasson, 22, of Coos Bay, was arraigned Wednesday on attempted murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and four counts of menacing. He was being held without bail.

Witnesses said the suspect appeared to be on drugs, and a law enforcement official confirmed that investigators also believe he was under the influence of something.

This was not the first time Thomasson has had a run-in with the law.

In November 2004, he was arrested for criminal mischief. A few months later he was arrested on two counts of assault. In March 2007, he was arrested for menacing, burglary and robbery; later that year he was arrested on charges of auto theft and assault.

A Medford police officer told KATU Thomasson and another man were involved in the stabbing of a 17-year-old in Medford in 2005, and that the two beat the teen’s father with lead pipes the same day.

Authorities in southern Oregon described Thomasson as a chronic offender.